Caught in the Frame (Ponderosa Pines Cozy Mystery Series Book 3) by ReGina Welling (novel24 .TXT) 📕

the term, I believe. My mother remarried after my father died. Tomas was very young. His father and my mother had both lost their first loves and, together, they found solace, family.”

Gently grasping Lila’s hand, Javier continued. The prospect of speaking this next part out loud had his heart thumping in his chest. He stood to lose her if she couldn’t forgive him for what he had done.

“When the police came to arrest my brother, I vowed to him that I would do everything in my power to clear his name. Even now that more evidence has come to light, he has not been fully exonerated. Remy Vincent cost Tomas everything. He spent his savings to mount a defense, then he had to leave our business to keep it from going under due to the strain on his reputation. We cut all ties to, and then buried his connection with Garritek to preserve our livelihood.”

Lila squeezed his hand. Javier had told her about Tomas, though not in great detail, and certainly not that Remy had been the man behind the frame job his brother had been caught in.

“Six months ago, Tomas broke under the strain. He walked away from his family,” Javier’s voice sounded choked with emotion. “He tried to kill himself. It was only through God’s mercy that I found him in time.” He paused for a long minute to pull himself together. “I vowed that I would clear his name, no matter the price.”

So far, Lila had not pulled away. Now he would say the words that might cost him his future with her.

“I cashed in favors with everyone I knew from my security work. Private investigators, Interpol—I even hired a hacker—and followed the trail to Remy, but there was never enough evidence for a warrant. I investigated every connection I could find—including EV and you, Lila.” He turned to her. “Please don’t hate me. When I found you, it was under the guise of learning more about Vincent. I planned to shamelessly exploit the connection if there was any way you could lead me to him. If I had known that you would turn out to be the love of my life, I’m not sure I would have done anything differently. In fact, if I had known the trail would lead me to you, the only thing I would alter is that I would have put my feet on it earlier. Every day of my life without you in it was a paler version. Say you’ll forgive me.”

Javier’s eyes searched Lila’s for signs of recrimination. If she turned away from him now, his world would become a bleak, colorless place.

At that point, Chloe broke in, “I knew you had an ulterior motive. I just expected it to be money, not revenge.”

He turned toward Chloe, and when she saw the naked fear written on his face, now pale and grave, she relented. “Give him a break, Mom; takes a pretty decent guy to go to such lengths to protect his family. You could do a lot worse. Besides, he’s growing on me.” Javier gave her a half smile and a nod of thanks.

“She’s right.” EV tossed in her two cent’s worth before Nate spoke up.

“We should get out of here,” he said, “and give them some privacy.”

“No. Stay right here.” Lila finally spoke. “There’s nothing to forgive. You could have told me before, and it would have made no difference.” She cupped his cheek in her hand, “I don’t care what your motives were for finding me, I’m just glad that you did.” Her kiss was gentle, a soothing balm to his soul.

“Well, it took him more than fifty years, but it looks like Remy finally did something right.” EV’s humorous observation broke the tension. She ran through the Ponderosa Pines part of the story quickly, bringing Javier up to speed. “Now can we please make a plan for dealing with the piece of slime? Or do the two of you need to get a room?”

Color returned to Javier’s face and he could take a full breath without worrying that his world was about to come crashing down; his mind cleared.

“We have a room, but I think we can hold out while we discuss the business at hand. With our combined evidence and testimony, we might just be able to nail him to the wall.” Javier couldn’t stop grinning though the look in his eyes was fierce.

“Assuming Vincent had an opportunity to lift EV’s key card, it had to have been him who went through Chloe’s things.”

“What about the other incidents we’ve been hearing about?” Dalton questioned.

“Non-issues.” Javier said, “a misplaced piece of jewelry that turned up later—money borrowed by a teenager from his father’s wallet. Nothing of consequence. The glitch in the system that caused safe doors to reprogram inaccurately was down to one of the security technician’s error. This is the only genuine break in, and assuming it was Vincent, the only question is: what was he looking for?”

“All of that makes perfect sense,” Nate said thoughtfully, “it comes down to why he went rifling through Chloe’s things? You’re sure nothing is missing, Chlo?”

“Not that I can see.”

Javier suddenly lost all the color his face had regained only moments before. “Baylee.”

“Baylee?” Lila said.

“I’ve one more story to tell.” Javier strode across the room where he stood, facing out the balcony doors with his back to the others who stood waiting for his next revelation. “Now that you know about Tomas, you’ll have realized Baylee is his wife. We made arrangements to access the safe in his room in our search for evidence.”

“HA! That explains the conversation Nate and I overheard,” Chloe’s outburst caused Javier to turn in surprise.

“Now I can see why you’ve been suspicious of me for so long. In any case, no one has seen Baylee since she left to search his room.”

EV’s voice dripped ice, “And you’re only telling us this now?”

“I received a text from her later with the all clear